Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi during the media briefing on Saturday. Picture: GCIS
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said the Health Department has noticed widespread medical negligence claims across the country with Gauteng and the Eastern Cape with the highest number of questionable claims.
Motsoaledi and Special Investigating Unit (SIU) Advocate Andy Mothibi were briefing the media on Saturday about the ongoing investigations by the SIU into medico-legal claims made against the health department across the country.
The minister said during 2015, Health Sector experienced an “explosion of medical practice litigation” cases directed against health institutions as well as individual medical practitioners in both the public and private practice.
“This explosion happens to have coincided with the Road Accident Fund (RAF) strengthening its systems. It is common cause that RAF had been hollowed out by a multiplicity of claims that brought it down to its knees.”
Motsoaledi said Gauteng and the Eastern Cape have the highest number of claims in terms medical negligence.
“By that time, the Eastern Cape contingent liability in respect of medico-legal claims amounted to R15,9 billion while in Gauteng the figure was R21.2 billion.”
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Motsoaledi said there is also collusion between healthcare workers in both private and public healthcare.
“In some instances nurses stole the medical records and illegally handed them over to attorneys The attorneys would then apply through PAIA (Promotion for Access to Information Act) for the same records they are illegally in possession of.
“Naturally such records will not be found and the lawyer then claims fees from the Department for failing to provide records,” Motsioaledi said.
Motsoaledi said there was also collusion involving some officials in the Office of the State Attorney, whereby out-of-court settlements for hefty sums were entered into without the mandate or even the knowledge of the department.
“Litigating attorneys would even sue for one case in two different courts. A variation of that is a situation where two different lawyers would claim for the same patient using identical details. Notably, whereas the patient is one person, the two attorneys will claim for vastly different amounts.
“One attorney would claim R7,5 million and the other R25 million for the same patient and same condition. This clearly indicates the arbitrariness of the claims,” Motsoledi said.
Motsoaledi said most of the claims were targeting cerebral palsy, a condition in which babies develop some form of brain damage due to depravation of oxygen during the process of birth.
He said the relationship between the health department and the SIU in the fight against corruption is not only limited to the medico-legal investigation but extends to areas of the department where “corruption rears its ugly head.”
“This will include among others the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI), which many people believe is being planned on a foundation of corruption. We are already working together through the health sector anti-corruption forum.
There are naysayers that investigations by institutions like the SIU are just public relations exercises and are meant not to yield any results. This was said by a prominent South African in May this year after the Department of Home Affairs called the SIU to raid the Refugee Reception Centres after a tip-off by a whistleblower,” Motsoaledi said.
Motsoaledi said lawyers who might have knowingly submitted claims that are fraudulent, to withdraw them within two weeks and there will be no consequences.
“Failure to withdraw within two weeks would mean that the offer will have lapsed and the SIU will strike,” he said.
“ So far, in the matters completed by the SIU, the sum of R3,104,684,800 has been saved for various Departments of Health. We believe that this amount will increase as the investigations are still ongoing.”
Motsoaledi said the SIU received a mandate from president Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate medico-legal claims.
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